The present invention relates to a riding lawn mower vehicle having a riding traveling vehicle body and a mower operatively connected via a lifting/lowering link mechanism to the vehicle body to be lifted and lowered relative thereto. The invention relates, more particularly, to a mower for use in such riding lawn mower vehicle.
A conventional riding lawn mower vehicle is known from e.g. JP 2002-238325. In this, the mower is lifted/lowered by a manual operation of a lifting/lowering lever provided on a right lateral side of a driver's seat.
With the riding lawn mower vehicle disclosed in the above-cited document, for improvement of maneuverability of the traveling vehicle body, right and left rear wheels are driven independently of each other and control levers provided on the right and left sides of the driver's seat are gripped and operated respectively by right and left hands for effecting a forward traveling, a reverse traveling and a turning operation. On the other hand, a lifting/lowering operation of the mower is effected by operating a lifting/lowering lever provided on a lateral side of the driver's seat with the right or left hand.
If a lifting/lowering operation of the mower is to be effected during traveling, an operation of the lifting/lowering lever is needed in addition to operations of the control levers. However, as the operator grips the control levers with both hands, the operation of the mower lifting/lowering lever is difficult. For this reason, when a mower lifting/lowering operation is to be effected, the operator needs to once suspend the traveling of the riding lawn mower vehicle and then operate the lifting/lowering lever. This hinders efficient lawn mowing operation.